There has been pointed out that the last chapter was a bit confusing about where Marty and Sarah were.
So here's the answer :)
Just let me know what you think!
Eight
Silence greeted them from the other side of the phone. They were beginning to worry that Deeks had somehow died of shock. They never, well almost never brought strangers inside the mission. For Hetty to invite Sarah inside their sanctuary was something special. Even Deeks didn't get to see the inside until he had become the liaison agent and Hetty had his signature on the piece of paper. Sarah clearly meant a great deal to Hetty, or better Deeks meant a great deal to Hetty and therefore Sarah became special as well.
'Mr. Deeks, are you still with us?' Hetty asked. Silence got replaced by background noise and they could vaguely hear voices.
' Yeah,' came softly, 'but I'm…' Now they could clearly hear a voice in the background, a female voice and Hetty recognized Sarah's voice.
'Mr. Deeks, are you alright?' she asked.
'I…., I got to go' he said and the connection was broken, but not before they could clearly hear a new sound in the background, that of a bullet being shot and impacted into a wall.
He was getting really tired of having to duck away from bullets. They were still inside the building but the one thing different was Jason's men finding their hiding space. He grabbed whatever he could find that was heavy enough and threw it through the window he had seen and talked about earlier. His plan had to see and find out if it could be opened the way man intended, but they didn't have the time for the moment. He grabbed another rock to clear out the rest of the glass, but reconsidered and handed it to Sarah. They had both brought their guns, but him being LAPD meant he could shoot without having to face problems. Sarah wasn't on duty here and while self defense was a way out, they would question her presence there. Sarah quickly understood what was needed from her and set to work.
The one bullet that had entered the room seemed to be a misfire or a lucky shot as the others came nowhere near the room they were in. They both know it was only a matter of time before the men made it to the room and had a better view of their targets, them. Deeks didn't feel like ending up as a practice target and when Sarah tapped him on the back, signaling she was ready, it only took him half a minute to hoist himself up and through the window. Quickly scanning the surrounding, he noticed that they were unspotted for the moment. He turned towards the window and was just in time to grab Sarah's shoulders and hoist her out as well. Normally that would have led to Sarah turning all Kensi on him, explaining she could do it herself, but the men behind them didn't allow her the time. Added to that he could always bring up her shoulder. Oh she was hiding it well, but he knew her better and he could see it was still troubling her.
Bullets flying through the broken window had them ducking for cover once again and then making a beeline for it. He liked running, hey he even went out for a jog pretty much every day but running when people shot at you was something else. Normally he was the one doing the shooting and he suddenly had a flash of sympathy for the suspects.
Suddenly his head collided with a wall and he was about to scream, but Sarah's hand moved over his mouth and stilled whatever swear words he uttered. With her other hand she place her finger over her lips and he understood the intention. Sarah had pulled them into a deep, dark opening in the wall. All though he was seeing stars, he silently thanked her when she pulled away her hand. They could hear others coming running and he pushed her behind him, his gun ready. This could only work when their trackers hadn't seen the sudden change in direction and didn't see the opening in the wall like Sarah had done.
Holding their breaths they waited and then could see who had been running after them. 3 thugs, no other way to describe them passed by in a hurry. Yet they remained where they were. Judging from the noise or the lack of it, the 3 had stopped running and they had to be around. One even came back in to view as he came walking back. Now he and Sarah actually froze and he shot a quick prayer up to heaven. If the guy spotted the opening they were in trouble, serious trouble.
Suddenly a piercing sound crashed through the area, some sort of fire alarm sounded making the 3 thugs turn and run back from the direction they had come.
Sarah's cell phone beeping to alert of an incoming message scared the hell out of them. He actually jumped a little hearing the sound, nothing to be embarrassed about because he had felt the reaction in his back, coming from Sarah as well. Quickly he brought the cell phone up and pressed the message button.
'clear, get out of there!' the message read and they both smiled.
The alarm hadn't been an accident, it had been a well placed diversion set up by the team and a way for them to get out. Following the instruction they got out of the opening and ran towards the fence and the car waiting for them. But right before he ducked through the fence he turned towards a camera and smiled a little. He knew they would be still watching and it was a way of showing they were safely on their way back to the mission.
Reaching the car, they sat there for a couple of minutes, gathering their breath. Nothing was being said between them, but like before it wasn't needed. When he felt like he could control himself again he turned the key into the ignition starting the car. Before driving away he placed his hand on Sarah thigh bring her back from her gazing out of the window.
'You okay?' he asked.
'Yeah' she replied softly.
'what?' she asked as he kept staring.
'You're lying' he said.
'Really?' she challenged him.
'Yeah, because I know for a fact that those shoes are killing you.'
The smack on his shoulder told him he had hit the jackpot and it was with a little smile playing around his lips that he got the car to move.
Eric had started to track the signal the minute Hetty had asked him to transfer call to the speaker. There for it didn't take him that long to find the spot and start hunting for camera's around.
The team fell silent when they noticed the place they were staring at was the same place Lazik had nearly killed Deeks. Eric pulled up all the camera's he could and they all took to watching the different feeds. It was Sam who had seen them climbing out of a window. Form there it was easy to follow them and they could see how they had been hiding inside the opening in the wall.
It had been a logic thing to do, outnumbered as they were. Okay only 3 men seemed to follow them, but they had no idea how many others were still inside the building. When the 3 stopped around the area where the opening was, they all held their breath and Callen knew they had to do something. Deeks and Sarah were on the verge of being discovered. He had asked Eric if he could see if the alarm system at that place was still in working order. The technician had looked a little wounded when he told the team it was no problem at all and that in fact the system still worked. Callen only nodded and Eric knew what he had to do and had switched the alarm on. They all scanned the area on the images coming through and when they had been sure the bad guys were away Hetty texted the message.
Seeing the two of them running towards the fence and then Deeks smiling towards the camera had relieved the tension in the room and everyone seemed to breathe a little easier. Kensi looked around and she knew that the relief on her team members faces could be seen on her face as well. Now the only thing that they needed to do was wait for Deeks to arrive at the mission.
But that brought something else with it. Hetty had invited Sarah as well and that somehow scared Kensi. She had faced a lot in her life but suddenly found herself scared to meet Sarah. Deeks had been anything but forthcoming about his past, his childhood. She knew it hadn't been a happy place, but that was about it. Deeks never talked about it and she never pressed for it. But know she stood to meet someone from said past, someone who probably knew everything there was to know about her partner. Not that she would ever say it out loud, but she was jealous. She was Deeks partner, she worked with him every day, she trusted him to have her back and he trusted her to have his, and yet she hardly knew anything about him. Sarah, who had barely been in his life for the last years, at least that was what she told herself, knew everything. Somehow she felt strange about it, like she was preparing for a fight and in that fight her lack of knowledge had put her on a disadvantage.
Deeks had parked the car a little away from the mission. It was one thing that Hetty had invited Sarah in, it was another thing riding up to the place. Beside in case they had been tailed, they might be able to shake them off. He knew some back alleys they could take. Sarah didn't say a word when he parked and got out. She just followed him. When he had told her where he was taken her, she had understood the significance of it and she had refrained from asking questions about. She would see whatever got thrown at her, knowing he would never lead her into her doom, well at least not willingly.
They hadn't said much as they walked towards the mission and while she hadn't asked any questions, it didn't mean she didn't have them tumbling through her mind. Questions that only seemed to multiply when she got closer and closer to her destination. She was glad for the questions because it took her mind of other things. She was about to meet Marty's team mates and she wasn't sure how she was feeling about that. She was a confident woman, her (foster)partners raising her a competent and confident woman but this somewhat scared her. She knew Marty would be by her side and that gave her comfort, but still.
She was about to meet some of the most important people in her friends life. He never said it with so many words, but she had heard enough through his stories about them. And perhaps meeting one particular person intimitated her the most. Kensi Blye had taken her place, at least in the love part of his heart. She wasn't stupid, she had seen his face light up when he spoke about her and whenever they called she could hear the light in his voice. She knew him enough to know he hadn't acted on it, but that didn't matter with Marty.
Jealousy was what came to mind at first, but she knew it wasn't that. She had met enough of her 'replacements' through the years but they never seemed serious in her eyes and over time her gut feeling had always been right. But with Kensi it was different, just by listing to his stories about her, Sarah had noticed the seriousness of it all.
She had always hoped he would meet someone, someone who would be able to take her place and make him happy again. The bond they had, even while living on other ends of the country would never be broken, but she knew she would feel more at ease knowing there was someone close by to help. But it was one thing to think along those lines, it was quite another to meet the woman who was in pole position to take that place.
Sarah looked up at the rundown building before her. She couldn't quite believe her eyes. One of the most top secret offices actually housed inside a condemned building. She looked around and could, despite the old age see the beauty of the building. Despite it being a shock to see this as the office, she wouldn't mind coming to work here, it's appearance was a lot better than the brick and glass building she called office back in New York.
It seemed like it was an old building, she knew she would step inside a different world once they got inside. But whenever that was, she didn't know. Marty seemed rooted to the spot as soon as they entered the courtyard facing the front door. He looked up at the building and she could see the hesitation on his face. She took the few steps that separated to two of them and got in his face.
'out there is only Jason and his fire ready crew.' She said earning his attention. 'let's go inside and settle this once and for all.'
She took his hand as he nodded and then they both walked towards the door and inside the mission.
Callen was the first to see the two people enter the building and by what he saw his breath was taken away. It was the resemblance between the two women that stood out. Ray hadn't lied, they actually could be sisters. Yet there were some difference between them. Sarah clearly embraced her feminine side, at least more than Kensi did. In their line of work that wasn't easy, but sometimes he wished that Kensi took a little more effort to bring out that part of her.
He soon felt Sam's presence next to him on the balcony overlooking the bullpen.
'Damn, Shaggy certainly knows how to pick them.' Sam said.
Callen simply nodded in return but refrained from commenting. Deeks had spotted them standing and was now looking at them. They slowly made their way down, from the side Hetty appeared and together with Eric and Nell, Kensi appeared on the balcony as well. Tension rose when they slowly started down and reached a high when they were all standing together next to the bullpen.
Silence seemed to linger for a while, until Deeks broke the silence.
'Guy, this is Sarah.'
'Sarah, meet the rest of the guys.'
Okay, this chapter was all about meeting the team but that changed.
Anyway, took it as an oppertunity to have the worries of both women surface a little. Sarah not being as confident as she would like :)
Anyway, let me know what you think and as said before suggestions are always welcome :)
